MARATHON, Florida Keys — Grouper season is officially open; get them while they are still congregating on the reef!  I wasn’t booked on May first when the season opened, but my buddy Capt. Blaine Lemm and I went out to get our take.  We didn’t leave the dock until 2:00 in the afternoon, but we had some great late afternoon action.  Instead of weeding through the small ones we targeted large grouper with half pound to one-pound baits.  We ended up hooking nine fish and only getting one 30 pounder to the boat.  We got a few heads, before we were able to get a whole one to the boat.  In the process we each caught a goliath grouper in excess of a hundred pounds.

If you’re heading offshore, the dolphin aren’t thick by any means…but if you put your time in you can make a pretty good day of it.  Most of the fish have been from 12 miles out to the edge of the continental shelf.  Almost all the fish have been under birds, with a few exceptions of some extraordinary floaters.  My buddy John Foster found a boat with two motors floating, but half sunk with a school of wahoo on it.  The only problem was that the wahoos weren’t the top predator in this little floating ecosystem.  They were only able to get three whole 20 pounders and four halves.  There must have been a shark or two lingering around.  The tuna bite picked back up after its short break.  Using live bait seems to be the key now…the tunas are not hitting the jigs as well as they have been, but you still are able to get a few.  Using live bait, the tunas were averaging 20-25 pounds with your occasional smaller ones too.

The deep dropping has been phenomenal! From snowys to queen snappers, to tiles and barrelfish, the current has been perfect for this fishing.  We need some current, but too much or you can’t hold bottom. Right now, its perfect with a knot and half drift slightly northeast.  A few people that I have talked with tell me that that the deep dropping has been as good as it gets.  With the new laws you need to be careful of what you catch because you can only have three groupers on the boat now.  This would include tilefish in your aggregate limits.  So that would mean two snowys and only tilefish, but we can live with a decrease bag limit.  From what I heard coming down the coconut telegraph, they intend to shut it all down…so get what you can while it is still legal.

The reef is on fire! The yellow brick road has formed behind many boats, and many people are reporting the start of a great yellowtail season.  We do catch yellowtails all year round, but it really is in the summer when the yellowtails school in great numbers.  Since they’re competing for the food, they become very aggressive and easier to catch.  We caught a few this week in the 5-pound range, which is an absolute monster when it comes to yellowtail.  There have been a few muttons around, but now that grouper is in season, we have been concentrating on them instead.  Remember, elephants eat peanuts…but to weed out small fish you must use larger baits.

Good luck and I will see you out there!